RESUMO
Background: Malaria morbidity and mortality reduction in children greatly depends on caregivers' knowledge about childhood malaria. Objective: The objective of the study was to assess caregivers' knowledge about malaria in Gilgel Gibe Field Research Center; Southwest Ethiopia. Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted from November to December 2005. A Sample of 588 households having children between the ages of 2-59 months were randomly selected from urban; semi-urban and rural strata proportional to their size. Caregivers of the children were interviewed using a structured questionnaire. Findings: Of 572 interviewed caregivers; most of them (70.1) spontaneously mentioned mosquitoes as the cause of malaria in children while half of them (51.9) had non-biomedical perceptions as causes of the disease. Among the symptoms of malaria in children; fever was mentioned spontaneously by most (86.2) of the caregivers. The three most commonly perceived preventive measures of malaria for children were cleaning the surrounding (43.7); keeping personal hygiene (35.7); and mosquito net usage (35). Urban or semi-urban residence; lower income and having formal education were found to be associated with good knowledge about childhood malaria. Conclusion: This study identified misperceptions regarding the cause and low level of awareness about childhood malaria among caregivers. These issues need to be addressed through tailored health promotion activities to prevent and control childhood malaria